System and method for displaying information on transparent display device

ABSTRACT

A method and system for displaying information on a transparent display device includes receiving a touch input for selecting an object displayed on a screen of an external device that is viewable through a screen of the transparent display device, requesting the external device for information related to the object, receiving the information related to the object from the external device, and displaying the received information on the screen of the transparent display device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No.10-2012-00104156, filed on Sep. 19, 2012, and Korean Patent ApplicationNo. 10-2013-00106227, filed on Sep. 4, 2013, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Methods and apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate todisplaying information, and more particularly, to a system and methodfor displaying information related to an external object or an externaldevice on a transparent display device.

2. Description of the Related Art

Transparent display devices are considered next generation displaydevices. A transparent display device has a degree of transparency thatenables a user to see an external object or an external device throughthe transparent display device.

However, a transparent display device does not display informationrelated to the external object or the external device.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments provide a system, a method, and an apparatus fordisplaying information related to an external device seen through ascreen of a transparent display device on the screen of the transparentdisplay device, and a recording medium thereof.

Exemplary embodiments also provide a system, a method, and an apparatusfor displaying information related to an object displayed on a screen ofan external device seen through a screen of a transparent display deviceon the screen of the transparent display device, and a recording mediumthereof.

Exemplary embodiments also provide a system, a method, and an apparatusfor displaying information related to an external object seen through ascreen of a transparent display device on the screen of the transparentdisplay device, and a recoding medium thereof.

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided amethod of displaying information on a transparent display device, themethod including: receiving a touch input on the transparent displaydevice that selects an object displayed on an external device that isviewable through a screen of the transparent display device; requestingthe external device for information related to the object; receiving theinformation related to the object from the external device; anddisplaying the received information on the screen of the transparentdisplay device.

The touch input may indicate a contour line of the object that isviewable through the screen, a tap-based touch indicating a location onthe screen at which the object is viewable through the screen, orindicate a closed region on the screen at which the object is viewablethrough the screen.

The information related to the object indicates at least one otherobject having a type that is the same as a type of the object, and adisplay location on a screen of the external device of the at least oneother object differs from that of the object.

The information related to the object indicates information that is notdisplayed on a screen of the external device.

The displaying comprises displaying the received information at adisplay location on the screen of the transparent display device thatcorresponds to a display location of the object on a screen of theexternal device.

The method may further include editing the information that is displayedon the screen of the transparent display device based on an interactionbetween the transparent display device and the external device.

The method may further include displaying information related to theexternal device based on an augmented reality service on the screen ofthe transparent display device.

The requesting and the receiving the information are performed based onone of a direct communication between devices, a communication via aserver, and a communication via a repeater.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a transparent display device including: a transparent displayconfigured to receive a touch input that selects an object displayed onan external device that is viewable through the transparent display; acommunication unit configured to communicate with an external devicethat is viewable through the transparent display; and a processorconfigured to request the external device for information related to theobject based on the touch input, via the communication unit, receiveinformation related to the object from the external device in responseto the request, via the communication unit, and control the transparentdisplay to display the received information.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of displaying information on a transparent displaydevice, the method including: receiving a first touch input on a screenof the transparent display device indicating first position informationof an external device that is viewable through the screen of thetransparent display device and receiving a second touch input on thescreen of the transparent display device indicating second positioninformation of an object displayed on a screen of the external deviceviewable through the screen of the transparent display device;requesting the external device for information related to the objectbased on the first position information and the second positioninformation; receiving information related to the object from theexternal device in response to the requesting; and displaying thereceived information on the screen of the transparent display device.

The first position information indicates a contour line of the externaldevice viewable through the screen of the transparent display device.

The first touch input may be independent touch operations on a firstpoint and a second point on the screen of the transparent display devicethat indicate a contour line of the external device that is viewablethrough the screen of the transparent display device.

The first touch input may be a touch-and-drag operation for connecting afirst point and a second point on the screen of the transparent displaydevice that indicates a contour line of the external device that isviewable through the screen of the transparent display device.

The first touch input may indicate a touch-based region adjustingoperation for guide information displayed on the screen of thetransparent display device, and a range related to the touch-basedregion adjusting operation for the guide information may be based on acontour line of the external device that is viewable through the screenof the transparent display device.

The first touch input may be a touch operation for selecting screeninformation of the external device, wherein the screen information maybe included in a selectable screen information menu item about theexternal device, which is displayed on the screen of the transparentdisplay device, and the screen information may include at least one ofscreen size information and screen type information.

The second position information may indicate a contour line of theobject that is viewable through the screen on the transparent displaydevice.

The second touch input may be a tap-based touch indicating a location onthe screen of the transparent display device at which the object isviewable through the screen of the transparent display device.

The second touch input may indicate a closed region on the screen of thetransparent display device through which the object is viewable on thescreen of the transparent display device.

The information related to the object may indicate at least one otherobject having a type that is the same as a type of the object, and adisplay location on the screen of the external device of the at leastone other object may differ from that of the object.

The method may further include editing the information that is displayedon the screen of the transparent display device based on an interactionbetween the transparent display device and the external device.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a transparent display device including: a transparent displayconfigured to receive a touch input indicating first positioninformation of an external device that is viewable through thetransparent display, and to receive a second touch input indicatingsecond position information of an object displayed on a screen of theexternal device viewable through the transparent display; acommunication unit configured to communicate with the external device;and a processor configured to request the external device forinformation related to the object based on the first positioninformation and the second position information, via the communicationunit, receive information related to the object from the external devicein response to the request, via the communication unit, and display thereceived information on the transparent display.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of displaying information on a screen of a transparentdisplay device, the method including: receiving from the transparentdisplay device a request for information related to at least one objectdisplayed on the screen of an external device that is viewable through ascreen of the transparent display device; selecting the at least oneobject in response to the request; and transmitting the informationrelated to the selected object to the transparent display device,wherein the request for information related to the object comprisesfirst position information of the external device indicated by a firsttouch input on the transparent display device and second positioninformation of the object displayed on the screen of the external deviceindicated by a second touch input on the transparent display device.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium havingembodied thereon a program for implementing the methods discussed ofdisplaying information on the transparent display device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects will become more apparent by describing indetail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attacheddrawings in which:

FIG. 1A through FIG. 1C are block diagrams of an information displaysystem according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying information ina transparent display device, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 3A through 3H are diagrams showing examples of a first touch inputaccording to exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 4A through 4E are diagrams showing other examples of a first touchinput according to exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 5A through 5E are diagrams showing other examples of a first touchinput according to exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 6A through 6C are diagrams showing a first touch input, a secondtouch input, and a screen displayed on a transparent display deviceaccording to the first and second touch inputs, according to exemplaryembodiments;

FIGS. 7A through 7D are diagrams showing screens for illustrating thefirst touch input, the second touch input, and editing processesaccording to the exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 8A through 8G are diagrams showing screens for illustrating thefirst touch input and the second touch input according to the exemplaryembodiments;

FIGS. 9A through 9C are diagrams showing screens for illustrating thefirst touch input and the second touch input according to the exemplaryembodiments in a case where a transparent display device and an externaldevice have equal size;

FIGS. 10A through 10D are diagrams showing examples of the first touchinput and the second touch input according to the exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by a transparent display device, according to anotherexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by a transparent display device, according to anotherexemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 13A and 13B are side views of the transparent display device andthe external device shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by a transparent display device, according to anotherexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by a transparent display device, according to anotherexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a functional block diagram of a transparent display deviceaccording to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a transparent display unitshown in FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a software layer stored in a storageunit of a transparent display device, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of a transparent display deviceaccording to another exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by an external device, according to an exemplaryembodiment; and

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationto be performed by a transparent display device according to anotherexemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

As the exemplary embodiments allow for various changes and numerousembodiments, particular exemplary embodiments will be illustrated in thedrawings and described in detail in the written description. However,this is not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments to particularmodes of practice, and it is to be appreciated that all changes,equivalents, and substitutes that do not depart from the spirit andtechnical scope of the disclosure are encompassed. In the description,certain explanations of well known related art are omitted.

While such terms as “first,” “second,” etc., may be used to describevarious components, such components must not be limited to the aboveterms. The above terms are used only to distinguish one component fromanother.

The terms used in the present specification are merely used to describeparticular exemplary embodiments, and are not intended as limiting. Allterms including descriptive or technical terms used herein should beconstrued as having meanings that would be understood to one of ordinaryskill in the art. However, the terms may have different meaningsaccording to an intention of one of ordinary skill in the art, precedentcases, or the appearance of new technologies. Also, some terms may bearbitrarily selected by the applicant, and in this case, the meaning ofthe selected terms will be described in detail in the detaileddescription. Thus, the terms used herein have to be defined based on themeaning of the terms together with the description throughout thespecification. Screens suggested in the present application are usedonly for descriptive purposes, and are not intended as limiting.

An expression used in the singular encompasses the expression of theplural, unless it has a clearly different meaning in the context. In thepresent specification, it is to be understood that the terms such as“including” or “having,” etc., are intended to indicate the existence ofthe features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, orcombinations thereof disclosed in the specification, and are notintended to preclude the possibility that one or more other features,numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof mayexist or may be added.

As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations ofone or more of the associated listed items. Expressions such as “atleast one of,” when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire listof elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.

An object denotes a component or information displayed on an externaldevice or a screen of the external device of a transparent displaydevice. For example, an object may include an image, an image includedin another image, an icon, a folder icon, an icon included in a foldericon, text, a pop-up window, an application execution window, a contentincluded in an application execution window, a list, an item, a content,and a file included in a list; however, the present invention is notlimited thereto. Examples of an object will be described in detail invarious examples of screens that will be described later. The object maybe referred to as an external object of the transparent display device.

Throughout the entire specification, a touch input denotes inputinformation of a user input through a touch-based gesture using a fingerof the user or a touch tool. The touch tool may be referred to as anexternal input device, a stylus, or a stylus pen.

The touch-based gesture may be variously defined. In other words,examples of the touch-based gesture may include touch-based motions on atouch screen, such as tap, touch-and-hold, double tap, drag,touch-and-drag, panning, flick, drag-and-drop, sweep, and swipe, but thetouch-based gesture is not limited thereto.

The touch input may be replaced by a gesture based on an image capturedby a camera, according to an input desired to represent based on thetouch. For example, if the touch input is an input for selecting anobject displayed on an external device, the touch input may be replacedby a gesture or operation according to a moving direction or sign of thehand captured by the camera. The camera may be configured based on animage sensor or an optical sensor.

The touch input may be replaced by a user voice signal based on naturallanguage, according to an input desired to represent based on the touch.For example, if a touch input is an input for selecting an objectincluding a certain letter or a name displayed on an external device,the touch input may be replaced by a user voice signal based on naturallanguage representing the certain letter or the name of the object.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments will be described in detail withreference to accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numeralsdenote like elements to not provide repeated descriptions.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an information display system according toan exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the information display system includes atransparent display device 100 and an external device 110. However, theinformation display system is not limited to the example shown in FIG.1A. That is, the information display system may further include othercomponents, in addition to the components shown in FIG. 1A.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1B, the information display system mayfurther include a server 120. In this case, the transparent displaydevice 100 and the external device 110 may transmit and/or receiveinformation via the server 120, and the transparent display device 100may receive information based on an augmented reality service about theexternal device 110 from the server 120. The communication through theserver 120 may be wired or wireless internet, but is not limitedthereto. The server 120 may include at least one of a cloud server, aninformation supply server, and a service server. The server 120 maymanage and provide information based on the augmented reality service.

The information display system may further include an access point 130,as shown in FIG. 1C. In this case, the transparent display device 100and the external device 110 may transmit and/or receive information viathe access point 130. The communication method via the access point 130may be, for example, a wireless LAN communication method ofinfrastructure mode (or WiFi), but is not limited thereto.

When the information display system is configured as shown in FIG. 1A,the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110 maytransmit and/or receive information through a device-to-device directcommunication. The device-to-device direct communication method may use,for example, a local area wireless communication method such as wirelessLAN communication of Ad-hoc mode such as WiFi-direct, Bluetoothcommunication, ultra wideband (UWB) communication, and Zigbeecommunication, but is not limited thereto.

That is, the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110may be connected to each other via a wire. For example, the transparentdisplay device 100 and the external device 110 may be connected to eachother via a universal serial bus (USB) or a universal asynchronousreceiver/transmitter (UART) to transmit/receive data. Thedevice-to-device direct communication method may be referred to as amachine-to-machine (M2M) communication method, a device-to-device (D2D)communication method, or a peer-to-peer (P2P) communication method.

Therefore, the communication between the transparent display device 100and the external device 110 may be performed based on one of the directcommunication between devices, the communication method via the accesspoint 130, and the communication method via the server 120, according toelements of the information display system, but is not limited thereto.

The transparent display device 100 and the external device 110 maytransmit and/or receive at least one of size information thereof, ownerinformation thereof, and information sharable with other devices,through a short distance communication method such as a near fieldcommunication (NFC).

The size information of the device may be represented as, for example,(width×length×thickness) mm, but is not limited thereto. Screeninformation may include screen size information and screen typeinformation, and is not limited thereto. The screen size information maybe represented as, for example, A4, B5, 7 inches, or 5.5 inches, and isnot limited thereto. The screen type information may represent whetherthe screen is a touch screen or a non-touch screen, and is not limitedthereto. For example, the screen type information may represent whetherthe screen is a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel or an active matrixorganic light emitting diodes (AMO LED) panel.

The transparent display device 100 may display the information about theexternal device 110, which is transmitted from the external device 110via a short distance communication method, such as the NFC, asinformation about the external device 110 based on the augmented realityservice. For example, the transparent display device 100 may display theinformation about the external device 110 on a display area adjacent tothe external device 110 that is seen through the transparent displaydevice 100. The display area is a part of a screen of the transparentdisplay device 100. The external device 100 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100 may be referred to as the external device100 that is seen via the screen of the transparent display device 100.

The transparent display device 100 is a device having a transparentdisplay. For example, the transparent display device 100 may be a mobilephone having a transparent display, a smartphone having a transparentdisplay, a notebook computer having a transparent display, a tablet PChaving a transparent display, a handheld PC having a transparentdisplay, an electronic book terminal having a transparent display, adigital broadcasting terminal having a transparent display, a personaldigital assistant (PDA) having a transparent display, a portablemultimedia player (PMP) having a transparent display, a navigationdevice having a transparent display, a smart TV having a transparentdisplay, a consumer electronic (CE) device having a transparent display(for example, a refrigerator having a transparent display, an airconditioner having a transparent display, a dish washing machine havinga transparent display, etc.), and an iOS-convertible device having atransparent display, but is not limited thereto. The transparent displaymay be applied to various fields such as high added-value glass, glassas a functional car element, car dashboard, navigators, securityelectronic devices, solar batteries, electronic devices for military,game consoles, toys, and show windows, as well as smart windows. Thescreen of the transparent display device 100 may be referred to as ascreen on the transparent display.

The transparent display device 100 may provide application executionfunction, communication function, media player function, web-browsingfunction, word-processing function, e-mail transmission function,messenger function, and/or data storage function, but is not limitedthereto.

The transparent display device 100 requests information related to atleast one object that is displayed on the external device 110 and seenthrough the transparent display device 100, based on a touch input. Whenreceiving the information related to the object from the external device110, the transparent display device 100 displays the receivedinformation.

The external device 110 is a device that is seen through the transparentdisplay device 100, through the screen of the transparent display device100, or through the transparent display of the transparent displaydevice 100. The external device 110 may be referred to as anotherdevice. The external device 110 may not include a transparent display.For example, the external device 110 may be a mobile phone, asmartphone, a notebook computer, a tablet PC, a handheld PC, anelectronic book terminal, a digital broadcasting terminal, a PDA, a PMP,a navigation, a smart TV, a CE device (for example, a refrigerator, anair conditioner, a dishwashing machine having a display panel, etc.),and an iOS convertible device, but is not limited thereto. That is, theexternal device 110 may include a transparent display.

The external device 110 may provide application execution function,communication function, media player function, web-browsing function,word-processing function, e-mail transmission function, messengerfunction, and/or data storage function, but is not limited thereto.

When the transparent display device 100 requests the information relatedto at least one object that is displayed, the external device 110selects the requested object and transmits information related to therequested object to the transparent display device 100.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying information tobe performed by the transparent display device 100, according to anexemplary embodiment.

In operation S201, the transparent display device 100 receives a firsttouch input and a second touch input. The first touch input representsreference information of the external device 110 that is seen throughthe transparent display device 100. The reference information is used todetect a display location of the object on the external device 110,wherein the object is selected by the second touch input in thetransparent display device 100. The reference information may bereferred to as first position information of the external device 110.

FIGS. 3A through 3H are diagrams showing examples of the first touchinput. In FIGS. 3A through 3H, the transparent display device 100 has asize that is greater than that of the external device 110, and theexternal device 110 is seen through the transparent display device 100as shown in FIG. 3A. In the examples shown in FIGS. 3A through 3H, aresult of sensing the first touch input may or may not be displayed onthe transparent display device 100.

FIG. 3B shows an example in which the first touch input is drawn along acontour line of the external device 110 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100. The contour line of the external device110 may be referred to as a boundary of the screen of the externaldevice 110. The first touch input may be referred to as a first inputthat identifies the boundary of the screen of the external device 110.The first touch input shown in FIG. 3B is based on drawing operationfrom a point S on the external device 110 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100 along the contour line of the externaldevice 110 to a point E. The point S denotes a start point of the touchoperation, that is, a drawing operation along the contour line of theexternal device 110. The point E denotes an end point of the touchoperation along the contour line of the external device 110. The point Sand the point E may have the same display location (or xy coordinates).However, the point S and the point E may be adjacent to each other sothat a closed area may be set according to the touch operation fordrawing along the contour line of the external device 110.

In FIG. 3B, the point S is a left uppermost corner in the contour lineof the external device 110, but is not limited thereto. That is, thepoint S may be an arbitrary point on the contour line of the externaldevice 110. The point E is determined depending on the point S.

In FIGS. 3C and 3D, the first touch input is based on independent touchoperations at a first point and a second point on the transparentdisplay device 100. In FIGS. 3C and 3D, the first point and the secondpoint are in a diagonal relationship on the contour line of the externaldevice 110 that is seen through the transparent display device 100.

Referring to FIG. 3C, the first point is a left uppermost point P1 onthe contour line of the external device 110, and the second point is aright lowermost point P2 on the contour line of the external device 110.Because the point P1 and the point P2 are independently touched, thetransparent display device 100 may trace the contour line of theexternal device 110 that is seen through the transparent display device100 based on information about xy coordinates of the point P1 and thepoint P2 on the transparent display device 100. That is, (x, y)coordinate information of a right uppermost point and a left lowermostpoint of the contour line, which are not touched, is detected based onthe (x, y) coordinate information of the point P1 and the point P2, andthe detected points are connected to each other to trace the contourline of the external device 110.

Referring to FIG. 3D, the first point is a left lowermost point P3 onthe contour line of the external device 110 and the second point is aright uppermost point P4 on the contour line of the external device 110.When the point P3 and the point P4 are touched, the transparent displaydevice 100 may trace the contour line of the external device 110 that isseen through the transparent display device 100 based on the xycoordinate information of the point P3 and the point P4 on thetransparent display device 100. The tracing of the contour line may beperformed in the same way as described with reference to FIG. 3C.

FIGS. 3E through 3H show examples where the first touch input is basedon a touch-and-drag operation connecting the first point and the secondpoint to each other on the transparent display device 100. In FIGS. 3Ethrough 3H, the first point and the second point are in the diagonalrelationship with each other based on the contour line of the externaldevice 110 that is seen through the transparent display device 100. Inthe examples shown in FIGS. 3E through 3H, the first point may denote astart point S and the second point may denote an end point E.

Referring to FIG. 3E, the point S is a left uppermost point on thecontour line of the external device 110 and the point E is a rightlowermost point on the contour line of the external device 110. Sincethe touch-and-drag operation is performed toward the point E aftertouching the point S, the transparent display device 100 may trace thecontour line of the external device 110. That is, as shown in FIG. 3E,when a touch point according to the touch-and-drag operation is t1, (x,y) coordinate information of a point t2 and a point t3 on the contourline, wherein the points t2 and t3 are not touched, is detected based onthe (x, y) coordinate information of the point S and the (x, y)coordinate information of the point t1, and then, the contour line ofthe external device 110 may be traced by connecting the point S, thepoints t1, t2, and t3 based on the (x, y) information thereof.

The transparent display device 100 may display an arrow or a blocksetting shown in FIG. 3E based on a current touching location to showvariation of the touched location according to the dragging. When thetouch-and-drag operation finishes at the point E, the transparentdisplay device 100 may end the arrow or the block setting display, andmay display the contour line of the external device 110. Otherwise, thearrow or the block display status may be maintained.

FIG. 3F shows a case where the start point S of the touch-and-dragoperation is the right uppermost point on the contour line of theexternal device 110 and the end point E is the left lowermost point onthe contour line of the external device 110. FIG. 3G shows a case wherethe start point S of the touch-and-drag operation is the left lowermostpoint on the contour line of the external device 110 and the end point Eis the right uppermost point on the contour line of the external device110. FIG. 3H shows a case where the start point S of the touch-and-dragoperation is the right lowermost point on the contour line of theexternal device 110 and the end point E is the left uppermost point onthe contour line of the external device 110.

FIGS. 4A through 4E are diagrams showing other examples of the firsttouch input. In FIGS. 4A through 4E, the transparent display device 100is larger than the external device 110, and as shown in FIG. 4A, theexternal device 110 is seen through the transparent display device 100.In the examples shown in FIGS. 4A through 4E, a result of sensing thefirst touch input may or may not be displayed on the transparent displaydevice 100.

In FIGS. 4A through 4E, the first touch input is based on a touch-basedoperation for adjusting a region with respect to guide informationdisplayed on the transparent display device 100, and the adjustablerange of the guide information based on the touch operation is based onthe contour line of the external device 110 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100.

The guide information may be, for example, camera focusing rangeinformation. The guide information may be displayed according to arequest of a user of the transparent display device 100. For example,the request of the user may include a request for displaying guideinformation for executing the information display method according tothe exemplary embodiment, or request for executing the informationdisplay method.

As shown in FIG. 4A, when the external device 110 is seen through thetransparent display device 100, the transparent display device 100displays guide information G1 as shown in FIG. 4B. The guide informationG1 may be displayed on the transparent display device 100 according to acommand of a user of the transparent display device 100. When performingthe region adjusting operation of the guide information G1 toward fourcorners of the contour line of the external device in a state ofcontacting four points P5, P6, P7, and P8, as shown in FIG. 4C, theguide information, the region of which is adjusted, is displayed on thetransparent display device 100.

Accordingly, the transparent display device 100 may trace the contourline of the external device 110 according to adjusted (x, y) coordinatevalues of the four points P5, P6, P7, and P8 of the guide informationG1. The tracing of the contour line may be performed by connecting thechanged (x, y) coordinate values of the points P5, P6, P7, and P8, butis not limited thereto. The changed (x, y) coordinate value of eachpoint may be obtained by adding a variation amount according to thedragging operation to the original (x, y) coordinate value, but is notlimited thereto. That is, according to two-touch operations, that is,touching the four points P5, P6, P7, and P8 of the guide information G1and touching the points representing the desired region, the original(x, y) coordinate values of the points may be updated to the (x, y)coordinate values of the second touched points.

FIGS. 4D and 4E are diagrams showing examples of the region adjustingoperation of the guide information G1. Referring to FIG. 4D, the usermoves touched point from the left uppermost point P5 of the guideinformation G1 to the left uppermost point of the contour line of theexternal device 110 after touching the point P5. The left uppermostpoint in the contour line of the external device 110 is a corner of theexternal device 110, which corresponds to the point P5 of the guideinformation G1.

Next, after touching the right lowermost point P8 of the guideinformation G1, the touched point is dragged to the right lowermostpoint in the contour line of the external device 110, the region of theguide information G1 is moved from the points P6, P7, and P8 except forthe left uppermost point P5, and accordingly, the display state of theguide information G1 is changed as shown in FIG. 4C.

According to the examples shown in FIGS. 4D, 4E, and 4C, after touchingone point of the guide information G1, the touched point is moved to acorresponding corner of the external device 110, and then, the diagonalpoint of the guide information G1 is touched and dragged to thecorresponding corner of the external device 110 so as to change adisplay location of the guide information G1 or adjust displayed size ofthe guide information G1.

The one point and the diagonal point in the guide information G1 are notlimited to the examples shown in FIGS. 4D and 4E. For example, the pointP6 of the guide information G1 is touched and dragged to thecorresponding corner in the contour line of the external device 110, andthen, the point P7 that is in a diagonal relation with the point P6 istouched and dragged so that the other points P5, P7, and P8 of the guideinformation G1 may be moved to the corresponding corners in the contourline of the external device 110.

FIGS. 5A through 5E are diagrams showing examples of the first touchinput in a case where the transparent display device 100 is smaller thanthe external device 110. That is, as shown in FIG. 5A, when thetransparent display device 100 is smaller than the external device 110,the first touch input may be based on a touch operation of drawing alongthe contour line of the external device 110 that overlaps thetransparent display device 100. Here, a direction of the touchoperation, that is, drawing direction along the contour line, may not belimited to one direction.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the transparent display device 100 may be smallerthan the external device 110. Accordingly, when an object to be selectedis displayed at a location adjacent to a center on a screen of theexternal device 110 so that the first touch input shown in FIGS. 5Bthrough 5E is not applied, the transparent display device 100 may reducea size of the external device 110 by using a zoom-out function of acamera to receive a first touch input and a second touch input. Here,the transparent display device 100 may detect a screen size of theexternal device 110 according to a zoom-out magnification.

Meanwhile, when the external device 110 is seen through the transparentdisplay device 100 as shown in FIG. 6A, the first touch input may bereceived when a touch operation of touching a start point S and draggingto the end point E along the contour line of the external device 110that is seen through the transparent display device 100.

Also, the first touch input may be based on a touch operation forselecting screen information of the external device 110, which isincluded in a menu 910 shown in FIG. 9B and will be described later. Thescreen information may include at least one of screen size informationof the external device 110 and screen type information of the externaldevice 110 as described above.

The screen size information may represent, for example, whether thescreen size of the transparent display device 100 is equal to a screensize of the external device, or certain size information such as A4, B5,7 inches, 4 inches, etc. as shown in FIG. 9B, but is not limitedthereto. The first touch input may be based on a touch operation forselecting corresponding screen size from among the pieces of the screensize information.

If the screen size of the transparent display device 100 is differentfrom the screen size of the external device 110, the transparent displaydevice 100 may change the (x, y) coordinate information on thetransparent display device 100 according to the first touch input andthe (x, y) coordinate information on the transparent display device 100according to the second touch input into information according to thescreen size of the external device 110.

For example, when the transparent display device 100 has a screen size(length, width, area, etc.) of 4 inches and the external device 110 hasa screen of 7 inches, the transparent display device 100 may change thecoordinate information of the first touch input on the transparentdisplay device 100 and the coordinate information of the second touchinput on the transparent display device into coordinate information onthe screen size of 7 inches, by using a function of converting thecoordinate information of the screen size of 4 inches into coordinateinformation of the screen size of 7 inches. Here, the transparentdisplay device 100 may use relational information between the (x, y)coordinate information on the transparent display device 100 accordingto the first touch input and the (x, y) coordinate information on thetransparent display device 100 according to the second touch input (forexample, difference information between the coordinate information).

Also, if the transparent display device 100 has a screen size of 10inches and the external device 110 has a screen size of 4 inches, thetransparent display device 100 may change the coordinate information ofthe first touch input on the transparent display device 100 and thecoordinate information of the second touch input on the transparentdisplay device 100 into coordinate information on the screen size of 4inches, by using a function of converting the coordinate information ofthe 10-inch screen size into the coordinate information of 4-inch screensize.

The above described function of converting the coordinate informationaccording to the screen size may be included in the external device 110.When the external device 110 has the function of converting thecoordinate information, the transparent display device 100 may transmitthe (x, y) coordinate information on the transparent display device 100according to the first touch input, the (x, y) coordinate information onthe transparent display device 100 according to the second touch input,and the screen size information of the transparent display device 100 tothe external device 110.

The screen type information may include information representing whetherthe screen type of the external device 110 is a touch type or anon-touch type. If the screen of the external device 110 is the touchtype screen, the external device 110 may recognize a region overlappingthe transparent display device 100 and the external device 110.Accordingly, the first touch input may not include information relatingto the contour line of the external device 110, but may only include theinformation representing that the screen of the external device 110 isthe touch type screen.

In addition, in operation S201 of FIG. 2, the second touch input is aninput for selecting at least one object displayed on the external device110. The object that is displayed on the external device 110 is seenthrough the transparent display device 100. The input for selecting theat least one object displayed on the external device 110 may be referredto as an input for selecting at least one position of the screen of theexternal device 110.

The second touch input may be based on at least one of a touchoperation, that is, touching an arbitrary point on a contour line of anobject that is seen through the transparent display device 100 anddragging the touched location along the contour line of the object, anda touch operation of writing along the object (for example, text) thatis seen through the transparent display device 100. The second touchinput may be referred to as a touch input on the screen of thetransparent display device 100 indicating position information (orsecond position information) of the object displayed on the screen ofthe external device 110. The second touch input may be referred to as aninput that selects a position of the screen of the external device 110viewable through the transparent display device 100. The object isdisplayed on the screen of the external device 110 at the position. Theposition comprises one of a coordinate position of the screen of theexternal device 110 viewable through the transparent display device 100and an area of the screen of the external device 110 viewable throughthe transparent display device 100.

FIGS. 6A through 6C are diagrams showing examples of the second touchinput according to the exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6A shows the second touch input based on a touch operation ofdrawing along a contour line of an object and the first touch inputbased on a touch operation of drawing along the contour line of theexternal device 110.

That is, referring to FIG. 6A, the first touch input is receivedaccording to the touch operation of touching the point S and drawing aline to the point E along the contour line of the external device 110,and the second touch input is received according to the touch operationof drawing a line along with a contour line of an icon. The touchoperation of drawing a line along the contour line of the icon isperformed by touching a point S1 and drawing a line to a point E1 alongthe contour line of the icon that is an object, and accordingly, thesecond touch input is received. The start point and the end point of thetouch operation for drawing along the contour line of the icon are notlimited to the examples shown in FIG. 6A. That is, the start point is anarbitrary point in the contour line of the icon, and the end point isdetermined according to the start point as described above. In FIG. 6A,the object displayed on the external device 110 is an icon, but theobject displayed on the external device 110 may be another type ofobject, as discussed below.

Also, the touch operation between the start point and the end point ofthe touch operation for drawing along the contour line of the object maybe performed continuously or discontinuously. If the touch operation isperformed discontinuously, the end point of the touch operation fordrawing along the contour line of the object may be changed.

For example, the touch operation for drawing along the contour line ofthe object in FIG. 6A starts from the start point S1 and stops at a leftlowermost point of the object, and then, the touch operation startsagain from the start point S1 or the end point E1 to the left lowermostpoint of the object. In this case, the end point is the left lowermostpoint of the object, and the end point E1 may be a connection point forconnecting the contour line according to the touch operation. The pointwhere the touch operation stops is not limited to the above example.That is, the touch operation may be stopped at an arbitrary point on thecontour line of the object, or at a plurality of points on the contourline of the object.

FIG. 6B shows an example where the second touch input is received basedon a writing touch operation along the object (text). That is, FIG. 6Bshows a second touch input based on the touch operation for writing analphabet character P. As such, whereas the icon displayed on theexternal device 110 in FIG. 6A constituted the object, the alphabetcharacter P is the object displayed on the external device 110 in FIG.6B. The second touch input based on the object writing touch operationmay be performed by touching an arbitrary point in the text, and then,writing along the text. For example, after touching a point 601, awriting touch operation along the object (text) may be performed in adirection denoted by an arrow of FIG. 6B. However, the start point ofthe object writing touch operation is not limited to the example shownin FIG. 6B, that is, an arbitrary point of the object may be the startpoint. In addition, the object writing touch operation may be performedcontinuously or discontinuously. When the object writing touch operationis performed discontinuously, at least one connection point as describedabove may be included between the start point and the end point.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams showing examples of a screen for describingthe first touch input and the second touch input, in a case where thetransparent display device 100 has a screen that is larger than that ofthe external device 110. That is, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the externaldevice 110 is seen through the transparent display device 100, the firsttouch input is based on the touch operation for drawing along thecontour line of the external device 110 and the second touch input isbased on the touch operation for drawing along the contour line of theobject displayed on the external device 110.

FIGS. 8A through 8G are diagrams showing other examples for illustratingthe first touch input and the second touch input in a case where thetransparent display device 100 is smaller than the external device 110.FIGS. 8A through 8G shows examples in which pieces of an object that isdisplayed on the external device 110 are arranged by adjusting theoverlapping locations of the transparent display device 100 and theexternal device 110. Therefore, in the examples shown in FIGS. 8Athrough 8G, the transparent display device 100 displays information ofsensing the second touch input on the transparent display device 100.

That is, when the screen displayed on the external device 110 is shownas FIG. 8A, the transparent display device 100 overlaps the externaldevice 110 as shown in FIG. 8B. Here, the first touch input is based ona touch operation for drawing along the contour line of the externaldevice 110 (801), and the second touch input is based on a touchoperation for drawing along a contour line of the object (802). Here,information of sensing the second touch input (802) is displayed on thetransparent display device 100.

The transparent display device 100 detects relational informationbetween (x, y) coordinate information on the transparent display device100 according to the first touch input and (x, y) coordinate informationon the transparent display device 100 according to the second touchinput in FIG. 8B, and stores the detected information. The relationalinformation detected by the transparent display device 100 may include adifference between the (x, y) coordinate information on the transparentdisplay device 100 according to the first touch input and the (x, y)coordinate information on the transparent display device 100 accordingto the second touch input. The external device 110 may recognize theobject selected by the transparent display device 100 in FIG. 8Baccording to the (x, y) coordinate information according to the firsttouch input, the (x, y) coordinate information according to the secondtouch input, and the above relational information.

For example, when the coordinate information according to the firsttouch input (801) includes coordinates from (x(1), y(1)) to (x(1+m),y(1+m)), the coordinate information according to the second touch input(802) includes coordinates from (x(i), y(i)) to x((i+j), y(i+j)), andthe number of pieces of the coordinate information obtained by the firsttouch input and the number of pieces of the coordinate informationobtained by the second touch input are equal to each other, thetransparent display device 100 may obtain relational information fromcoordinates (x(1)-x(i), y(1)-y(i)) to (x(1+m)-x(i+j), y(1+m)-y(i+j)).Here, m, i, and j are natural numbers that are equal to or greater than2.

However, the number of pieces of coordinate information on thetransparent display device 100 according to the first touch input andthe number of pieces of coordinate information on the transparentdisplay device 100 according to the second touch input may be differentfrom each other. In this case, the transparent display device 100 maydetect the above relational information by sampling the coordinateinformation obtained by the first touch input and the coordinateinformation obtained by the second touch input. A target to be sampledmay be determined according to the display location thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 8C, when the transparent display device 100overlaps the external device 110, the first touch input is based on atouch operation for drawing along the contour line of the externaldevice 110 (803) and the second touch input is based on a touchoperation for drawing along the contour line of the object (804). Here,information of sensing the second touch input (804) is displayed on thetransparent display device 100.

Accordingly, the image of the object displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100 may include the information of sensing the secondtouch input (802) in FIG. 8B, as shown in FIG. 8C. The transparentdisplay device 100 detects the coordinate information according to thefirst touch input and the second touch input and the relationalinformation between the coordinate information in FIG. 8C and stores thedetected information as described with reference to FIG. 8B. Here, thetransparent display device 100 stores the coordinate information and therelational information between the coordinate information detected inthe process of FIG. 8B and the coordinate information and the relationalinformation between the coordinate information detected in the processof FIG. 8C to be distinguished that the coordinated information and therelational information are detected from each other process.

As shown in FIG. 8D, when the transparent display device 100 overlapsthe external device 110, the first touch input is based on a touchoperation for drawing along the contour line of the external device 110(805) and the second touch input is based on a touch operation fordrawing along the contour line of the object (806). Here, the secondtouch input may further include a touch operation for filling inside thecontour line of the object. Information of sensing the second touchinput (806) is displayed on the transparent display device 100.Accordingly, the image of the object displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100 may include an image including the information ofsensing the second touch input in the processes shown in FIGS. 8B and8C.

The transparent display device 100 detects and stores the coordinateinformation on the transparent display device 100 according to the firsttouch input and the second touch input in the process shown in FIG. 8Dand the relational information between the coordinate information, asdescribed with reference to FIG. 8B. When storing the information, thetransparent display device 100 stores the detected coordinateinformation and the relational information to be distinguished from thecoordinate information and the relational information obtained in theprocesses shown in FIGS. 8B and 8C.

As shown in FIG. 8E, when the transparent display device 100 overlapsthe external device 110, the first touch input is based on a touchoperation for drawing along the contour line of the external device 110(807), and the second touch input is based on a touch operation fordrawing along the contour line of the object (808). Here, the secondtouch input may further include a touch operation for filling inside thecontour line of the object. Information of sensing the second touchinput (808) is displayed on the transparent display device 100.Accordingly, the image of the object displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100 may be the image including all the information ofsensing the second touch input in processes shown in FIGS. 8B, 8C, and8D.

The transparent display device 100 obtains coordinate information on thetransparent display device 100 according to the first touch input (807)and the second touch input (808) in FIG. 8E and the relationalinformation between the coordinate information, and stores the detectedinformation. Here, the transparent display device 100 stores thedetected coordinate information and the relational information obtainedin the process of FIG. 8E to be distinguished from the coordinateinformation and the relational information obtained in the processesshown in FIGS. 8B through 8D.

When the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110overlap each other as shown in FIG. 8F, the first touch input is basedon a touch operation for drawing along the contour line of the externaldevice 110 (809) and the second touch input is based on a touchoperation for writing along a text “RABBIT” (810). Here, information ofsensing the second touch input (810) is displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100. Accordingly, the image of the object displayed onthe transparent display device 100 is an image including all theinformation of sensing the second touch inputs in the processes shown inFIGS. 8B through 8E. The transparent display device 100 obtainscoordinate information on the transparent display device 100 accordingto the first touch input and the second touch input in FIG. 8F and therelational information between the coordinate information, and storesthe detected information as shown in FIGS. 8B through 8E.

According to displaying information of sensing the second touch inputsin the processes shown in FIGS. 8B through 8F on the transparent displaydevice 100, the information of sensing the second touch inputs isdisplayed on the transparent display device 100 as shown in FIG. 8G. Asdescribed above, by displaying the information of sensing the secondtouch inputs on the transparent display device 100 when the second touchinput is received, a displaying location about the object, which wouldbe transmitted from the external device 110, may be determined inadvance.

Also, the processes shown in FIGS. 8B through 8F may be performed afterchanging a location of the transparent display device 100 or moving thetransparent display device 100 to arrange pieces of the object displayedon the external device 110. Therefore, the transparent display device100 may clearly distinguish the first touch input and the second touchinput from each other in each screen. For example, after receiving thefirst touch input and the second touch input in FIG. 8B, the transparentdisplay device 100 changes its location or moves, and then, receives thefirst touch input and the second touch input according to the process ofFIG. 8C to select the object displayed on the external device 110 asshown in FIG. 8C. Therefore, the first and second touch inputs in theprocess of FIG. 8B and the first and second touch inputs in the processof FIG. 8C may be distinguished from each other via sensing of thelocation variation or the moving of the transparent display device 100.

FIGS. 9A through 9C are diagrams showing examples of screen fordescribing the first and second touch inputs.

Referring to FIG. 9A, the transparent display device 100 and theexternal device 110 have the same size. Referring to FIG. 9B, a firsttouch input operation is performed based on a menu 910 displayed on thetransparent display device 100, and a second touch input is based on atouch operation for setting a closed region with respect to a sun, atap-based touch operation with respect to a cloud, and a touch operationfor drawing a contour line of a flower. The closed region shown in FIG.9B is not limited thereto. For example, the closed region may be set asvarious types of closed loops in the transparent display device 100.

FIGS. 10A through 10D are diagrams showing examples of the screens fordescribing a first touch input and a second touch input based on anaugmented reality service.

FIG. 10A shows a case where information about the external device 110based on the augmented reality service is displayed adjacent to theexternal device 110 that is seen through the transparent display device100. The information about the external device 110 based on theaugmented reality service may be provided from the external device 110,another external device, or a server based on a physical locationsbetween the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110.

The information about the external device 110 based on the augmentedreality service may be provided using an access point. When thetransparent display device 100 and the external device 110 are locatedwithin a communication area of the same access point, physical locationsof the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110 may beestimated by using an indoor sensor capable of estimating a physicallocation of a device such as a geomagnetic sensor, an accelerationsensor, a gyro sensor, and an altitude sensor mounted in the device.Thus, the information about the external device 110 based on theaugmented reality service may be provided from the above described otherexternal device or the server according to the estimated physicallocations.

Otherwise, the transparent display device 100 receives or reads, fromthe external device 110, information that is necessary for receivinginformation based on the augmented reality service about the externaldevice 110 (for example, mark information for recognizing the externaldevice 110) using short distance communication such as NFC, and then,collects and displays the information based on the augmented realityservice about the external device 110 from the server or the abovedescribed other external device.

The information about the external device 110 seen through thetransparent display device 100 based on the augmented reality servicemay include a name of the device, a name of the owner, and contents ofthe external device, which may be shared with other devices, as shown inFIG. 10A, but is not limited thereto.

When displaying the information about the external device 110 based onthe augmented reality service as shown in FIG. 10A, the first touchinput may be based on an operation of setting a touch-based closedregion about the external device 110 as shown in FIG. 10B. Thetouch-based closed region is not limited to the example shown in FIG.10B.

According to receipt of the first touch input, information about ashared folder may be displayed on the transparent display device 100 asshown in FIG. 10C. The information about the shared folder may beinformation based on the augmented reality service, or information thatis received from the external device 110 when the first touch input istransmitted to the external device 110. Here, the screen displayed onthe external device 110 may not display the information about the sharedfolder.

When the second touch input according to the operation of setting thetouch-based closed region or tap-based touch operation on a desiredfolder is received based on the information about the shared folderdisplayed on the transparent display device 100 as shown in FIG. 10C,available pictures may be displayed as shown in FIG. 10D. The screen ofthe external device 110 may not display the available pictures shown inFIG. 10D.

The transparent display device 100 may perform the second touch inputoperation by an operation of setting a touch-based closed region on adesired picture from among the available pictures shown in FIG. 10D.

Meanwhile, in operation S202 of FIG. 2, the transparent display device100 requests the external device 110 for information about at least oneselected object, based on the first and second touch inputs. A signalrequesting the information about the object may include the coordinateinformation on the transparent display device 100 according to the firstand second touch inputs and/or relational information between thecoordinate information.

Otherwise, the signal requesting the information related to the objectmay include coordinate information on the external device 110 accordingto the first and second touch inputs, wherein the coordinate informationis converted by using the coordinate information converting function ofthe transparent display device 100, and/or relational informationbetween the coordinate information. The coordinate information on theexternal device 110 according to the second touch input may becoordinate information of the object that is displayed on the externaldevice 110.

The signal requesting the information related to the object may furtherinclude a signal requesting relation information with the object. Thesignal requesting relation information with the object may include, forexample, information for requesting a folder and objects included in thefolder, when the object selected according to the second touch input isthe folder. The objects included in the folder may be referred to asobjects that are not displayed on the external device 110.

The signal requesting the information related to the object may includecoordinate information on the transparent display device 100 accordingto the first and second touch inputs, and screen size information of thetransparent display device 100. In this case, the external device 110may detect coordinate information on the external device 110 accordingto the first and second inputs based on the information transmitted fromthe transparent display device 100 and the screen information of theexternal device 110. The coordinate information on the external device110 may be detected by the processes described with reference to FIGS.8B through 8F, but is not limited thereto.

The signal requesting the information related to the object may includevarious pieces of information that may be estimated by the examples ofthe first and second touch inputs described with reference to FIGS. 3through 10D.

In operation S203, the transparent display device 100 receivesinformation related to the selected object from the external device 110,and in operation S204, the transparent display device 100 displays thereceived information related to the object on the transparent displaydevice 100.

The information related to the object may include at least one otherobject having the same display type as that of the object selected bythe second touch input. The other object has a different displaylocation on the external device 110 from that of the selected object.That is, as shown in FIG. 6B, when the second touch input is receivedbased on the touch operation for writing the text P, the transparentdisplay device 100 may receive all of the text Ps that are displayed atdifferent locations on the external device 110 from the external device110, and displays the received text.

Here, the display locations of the received information on thetransparent display device 100 may similarly correspond to the displaylocations on the external device 110. If there are a plurality pieces ofreceived information, the transparent display device 100 receivesinformation about display coordinates on the external device 110,detects information about display coordinates on the transparent displaydevice 100 by using the screen size information of the transparentdisplay device 100 and the display coordinate information transmittedfrom the external device 110, and displays the plurality of objects byusing the detected coordinate information. The coordinate informationmay be detected by the coordinate information converting operation thatis described above.

However, the external device 110 may detect information aboutcoordinates on the transparent display device 100 by using the screensize information of the transparent display device 100 and theinformation about the display coordinates of the plurality pieces of theobject information on the external device 110, and may transmit thedetected coordinate information and the object information to thetransparent display device 100. Then, the transparent display device 100may display the objects based on the received coordinate information.

In operation S203, the information about the selected object transmittedfrom the external device 110 may include information relating to theselected object. The information relating to the object may includeinformation that is not displayed on the external device 110 (forexample, information about objects included in a folder) as describedabove.

In operation S204, displaying the received information on thetransparent display device 100 may include displaying the receivedinformation at similar locations as those of the external device 110 asshown in FIGS. 6C, 7C, and 9C. However, when the second touch input isreceived as shown in FIG. 10D, pictures Pic1, Pic5, and Pic6, which arethe selected objects, are received. Thus, the transparent display device100 may display the received pictures Pic1, Pic5, and Pic6 sequentiallyor on locations based on the screen shown in FIG. 10D. The receivedinformation may be stored in a clip board in the transparent displaydevice 100, or may be displayed on a clip board after generating theclip board.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationin a transparent display device according to another exemplaryembodiment. The method illustrated in FIG. 11 includes an editingfunction.

In operation S1101, the transparent display device 100 receives a firsttouch input and a second touch input. The first and second touch inputsare the same as those described with reference to FIGS. 2 through 10.

In operation S1102, the transparent display device 100 requests theexternal device 110 for information related to an object based on thefirst and second touch inputs. The request for the information relatedto the object is the same as that described in operation S201 of FIG. 2.

In operation S1103, the transparent display device 100 receivesinformation corresponding to the request from the external device 110.The information related to the object that is received is the same asthat described in operation S203.

In operation S1104, the transparent display device 100 displays thereceived information the transparent display device 100.

In operation S1105, the transparent display device 100 edits thereceived information that is displayed on the transparent display device100 according to a user input.

That is, when the received object is displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100 as shown in FIG. 7C and a touch-based user input forcombining the objects (701 and 702) is received, the transparent displaydevice 100 displays a screen on which the objects are combined as shownin FIG. 7D.

The user inputs 701 and 702 may be received via various touch-basedoperations. For example, the user inputs 701 and 702 may be performed asvarious touch-based operations, for example, a touch-based operation forlong-touching the object to be moved and dragging the object to adesired location of the object to be combined, a touch-based operationfor long touching the object to be moved and long-touching the desiredlocation of the object to be combined, a touch-based operation forsetting a touch-based closed region on the object to be moved andlong-touching the desired location of the object to be combined, or atouch-based operation for setting a touch-based closed region on theobject to be moved, setting a touch-based closed region on the desiredlocation of the object to be combined, and connecting the closedregions.

The editing operation in operation S1105 is not limited to thecombination of the objects as shown in FIGS. 7C and 7D. The editing mayinclude various edits on the object, such as change in the shape of theobject or change in the content of the object, and an edit on the screenincluding the object.

The transparent display device 100 may perform the above editingoperation based on an interaction with the external device 110.Accordingly, the information displayed on the external device 110 mayreflect the editing result in the transparent display device 100 inreal-time. The editing result may be stored in the external device 110only, in the transparent display device 100 only, or in both the devices100 and 110, according to the user input in the transparent displaydevice 100.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationin a transparent display device according to another exemplaryembodiment. In FIG. 12, the transparent display device 100 is flexible,and a front portion and a rear portion of the transparent display device100 may be transformed or deformed according to a touch-based input. Theexternal device 110 has a touch screen.

In operation S1201, a touch input for selecting an object displayed onthe external device 110 that is seen through the transparent displaydevice 100 is received. Here, the received touch input may correspond tothe second touch input described with reference to FIGS. 2 through 10.

In operation S1202, front and rear surface portions of the transparentdisplay device 100 to which the touch input is received are deformed toprotrude toward the external device 110.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are side views showing a relation between thetransparent display device 100 that is flexible and has the front andrear surface portions 1301 and 1302 that are deformed together accordingto the touch-based input, and the external device 110.

FIG. 13A is a side view showing the transparent display device 100 andthe external device 110 overlapping each other before the touch input isreceived.

FIG. 13B shows a case where the front and rear surface portions 1301 and1302 of the transparent display device 100 are transformed together totouch a touch screen 1303 of the external device 110 according to thetouch-based user input to the front surface portion 1301 of thetransparent display device 100. The rear surface portion 1302 of thetransparent display device 100 may be configured as a constant voltagetype so that the touch screen of the external device 110 may recognize acontact portion of the rear surface portion 1302 of the transparentdisplay device 100 as a touch-based input; however, the presentinvention is not limited thereto. That is, the rear surface portion 1302may be configured according to a touch sensing type of the touch screen1303 in the external device 110.

Meanwhile, in operation S1203, the transparent display device 100receives information related to the selected object from the externaldevice 110 based on the touch input due to the contact between the rearsurface portion 1302 of the transparent display device 100 and theexternal device 110.

In operation S1204, the transparent display device 100 displays thereceived information.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationin a transparent display device 100 according to another exemplaryembodiment. FIG. 14 shows a case where the information related to theobject displayed on the external device 110 and the screen sizeinformation are transmitted based on a local area wireless communicationbetween the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110.

In operation S1401, the transparent display device 100 receives theinformation related to the object displayed on the external device 110and the screen size information of the external device 110 via the localarea wireless network. The local area wireless communication may includeNFC, Bluetooth communication, Wi-Fi direct communication and IRassociation communication, but is not limited thereto.

In operation S1402, the transparent display device 100 checks whetherthe transparent display device 100 overlaps the external device 110. Thechecking in the operation S1402 may including checking the intention ofthe user to display the object displayed on the external device 110 thatis seen through the transparent display device 100 on the transparentdisplay device 100 according to the touch input to the transparentdisplay device 100. The intention of the user may be interpreted as theintention to select an object to be displayed on the transparent displaydevice 100.

The checking operation may be performed by disposing a contact sensor onthe rear surface portion of the transparent display device 100 ortransmitting a sensing result sensed by a contact sensor disposed on afront surface portion of the external device 110 to the transparentdisplay device 100 via the local area wireless communication, but is notlimited thereto.

Also, in the operation S1402, the transparent display device 100 and theexternal device 110 may overlap so that the external device 110 may beincluded within the screen of the transparent display device 100 whenthe external device 110 is smaller as shown in FIG. 3A, but is notlimited thereto. If the transparent display device 100 is smaller thanthe external device 110 as shown in the example of FIG. 4A, a part ofthe external device 110 may overlap the transparent display device 100,but is not limited thereto. When the transparent display device 100 andthe external device 110 have equal sizes as shown in FIG. 9A, theoverlapping surfaces of the transparent display device 100 and theexternal device 110 may be the same as each other.

In operation S1402, if it is determined that the transparent displaydevice 100 and the external device 110 overlap each other, thetransparent display device 100 displays the information related to theobject displayed on the external device 110 by using the informationtransmitted via the local area wireless communication according to theuser input in operation S1403. The user input in the operation S1403 mayinclude a request for displaying the object displayed on the externaldevice 110 that is seen through the transparent display device 100, butis not limited thereto.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationin a transparent display device according to another exemplaryembodiment. FIG. 15 shows a case where information obtained byphotographing the external device 110 using a camera function of thetransparent display device 100 is displayed on the transparent displaydevice 100 according to a user input.

In operation S1501, the transparent display device 100 photographs anobject displayed on the external device 110 by using the camerafunction.

In operation S1502, the transparent display device 100 determineswhether the transparent display device 100 and the external device 110overlap each other. Determining whether the transparent display device100 and the external device 110 overlap each other may be performed inthe same manner as that of operation S1402 described above.

In operation S1503, if it is determined that the transparent displaydevice 100 and the external device 110 overlap each other, thetransparent display device 100 displays the object displayed on theexternal device 110 that is photographed according to the user input.The user input may include a request for outputting the object displayedon the photographed external device 110, but is not limited thereto.

FIG. 16 is a functional block diagram of the transparent display device100 according to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 16, the transparent display device 100 may include atransparent display 1610, a storage 1620, a communication interface1630, a processor 1640, and a sensor 1650. However, the transparentdisplay device 100 may further include additional components other thanthose shown in FIG. 16. For example, the transparent display device 100may include an interface, such as a universal serial bus (USB) or acamera module.

The transparent display 1610 is configured so that the object displayedon a screen of the external device 110 may be seen through thetransparent display 1610 and may be configured to receive a touch-basedinput. The transparent display unit 1610 may be formed in various types,for example, a transparent liquid crystal display (LCD) type, atransparent thin-film electroluminescent panel (TFEL) type, atransparent OLED type, or a projection type. Hereinafter, examples ofthe structure of the transparent display 1610 will be described below.

The transparent LCD type is a transparent display device formed byremoving a backlight unit from a currently used LCD device and using apair of polarization plates, an optical film, a transparent thin filmtransistor (TFT), and a transparent electrode. The transparent displaydevice may be referred to as a transparent display. In case of thetransparent LCD device, a transmittance is degraded due to thepolarization plates or the optical film and optical efficiency isreduced since peripheral light is used instead of the backlight unit;however, a large size transparent display may be realized.

The transparent TFEL type is a transparent display device using analternating current (AC) type inorganic thin film EL display (AC-TFEL)including a transparent electrode, an inorganic phosphor, and aninsulating film. The AC-TFEL emits light when accelerated electrons passthrough the inorganic phosphor to excite the phosphor. If thetransparent display unit 1610 is the transparent TFEL type, theprocessor 1640 may adjust the electrons to be projected to anappropriate location to determine a location displaying the information.Since the inorganic phosphor and the insulating film are transparent,the transparent display may be easily obtained.

Otherwise, the transparent OLED type is a transparent display deviceusing an OLED that emits light by itself. Since an organic emissionlayer is transparent, the OLED may serve as the transparent displaydevice provided that both electrodes are realized as transparentelectrodes. In the OLED, electrons and holes are injected from bothsides of the organic emission layer to be combined in the organicemission layer and emit light. The transparent OLED device may displaythe information by injecting the electrons and holes to desiredlocations.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a detailed structure of the transparentdisplay 1610 that is formed as the transparent OLED type. However, thetransparent display 1610 is not limited to the example shown in FIG. 17.

Referring to FIG. 17, the transparent display 1610 includes atransparent substrate 1702, a transparent transistor layer 1703, a firsttransparent electrode 1704, a transparent organic emission layer 1705, asecond transparent electrode 1706, and a connection electrode 1707.

The transparent substrate 1702 may be formed of a polymer material thatis transparent such as plastic, or a glass material. The materialforming the transparent substrate 1702 may be determined according toenvironment in which the transparent display device 100 is used. Forexample, the polymer material is light and flexible, and thus may beapplied to a portable display device. The glass material may be appliedto show windows or general windows.

The transparent transistor layer 1703 is a layer including a transistorthat is fabricated by replacing opaque silicon used in a conventionalTFT with an organic material such as transparent zinc oxide or titaniumoxide. In the transparent transistor layer 1703, a source, a gate, adrain, and various dielectric layers 1708 and 1709 are formed, and theconnection electrode 1707 for electrically connecting the drain to thefirst transparent electrode 1704 may be formed. The transparenttransistor layer 1703 includes a plurality of transparent transistorsthat are distributed throughout the entire display surface of thetransparent display device 100. The processor 1640 applies a controlsignal to the gate in each of the transistors in the transparenttransistor layer 1703 to drive the corresponding transparent transistorand display information.

The first transparent electrode 1704 and the second transparentelectrode 1706 are disposed at opposite sides to each other while thetransparent organic emission layer 1705 is interposed. The firsttransparent electrode 1704, the transparent organic emission layer 1705,and the second transparent electrode 1706 form an organic light-emittingdiode (OLED).

The transparent OLED may be classified as a passive matrix OLED (PMOLED)and an active matrix OLED (AMOLED) according to a driving methodthereof. The PMOLED has a structure in which cross points between thefirst and second transparent electrodes 1704 and 1706 form pixels.However, in the AMOLED, a TFT is disposed to drive each of the pixels.

Each of the first and second transparent electrodes 1704 and 1706includes a plurality of line electrodes, arranged perpendicularly toeach other. For example, if the line electrodes of the first transparentelectrode 1704 are arranged in a transverse direction, the lineelectrodes of the second transparent electrode 1706 are arranged in alongitudinal direction. Accordingly, there are a plurality of crossingareas formed between the first and second transparent electrodes 1704and 1706. The transparent transistor is connected to each of thecrossing areas.

The processor 1640 generates a potential difference in each of thecrossing areas by using the transparent transistor. The electrons andholes are induced to the transparent organic emission layer 1705 fromthe first and second electrodes 1704 and 1706 within the crossing areawhere the potential difference is generated, and then, combined witheach other to emit light. On the other hand, the crossing area where thepotential difference is not generated does not emit light, andaccordingly, background image of the rear surface is seen as it is.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) may be used as the first and second transparentelectrodes 1704 and 1706. Otherwise, a newly developed material such asgraphene may be used. Graphene is a material of a honeycomb-shaped planestructure in which carbon atoms are connected to each other and having atransparent property. Otherwise, the transparent organic emission layer1705 may be formed of various materials.

In addition, as described above, the transparent display 1610 may beformed as the projection type, as well as the transparent LCD type, thetransparent TFEL type, and the transparent OLED type. The projectiontype is a method of displaying an image by projecting the image to atransparent screen such as a head-up display.

Also, the transparent display 1610 may be a dual-touchable touch screen,or may be a touch screen, a front surface of which is only touchable.

The transparent display 1610 displays information including the objectprocessed in the transparent display device 100. The information mayinclude information except for the object. The information except forthe object may denote information that is displayed, but may not beselected by the user input.

The transparent display 1610 is formed as a transparent device, and atransparency of the transparent display 1610 may be adjusted byadjusting light transmittance of the transparent device or by adjustingRGB value of each pixel.

Also, the transparent display 1610 may have a structure in which an OLEDand an LCD are combined. In the transparent display 1610, the OLED maybe located adjacent to a front surface input portion, and the LCD may belocated adjacent to a rear surface input portion. In a case where thetransparent display 1610 has the above combined structure, thetransparent display 1610 maintains a transparent state such as the glassduring power-off status, and when power is applied, the LCD blocks thelight so that the transparent display 1610 becomes opaque.

The transparent display 1610 receives a touch input of the user throughthe front surface input unit. The screen displayed on the transparentdisplay 1610 may include a user interface (UI) or a graphic userinterface (GUI). Also, the transparent display 1610 may receive anddisplay the information related to the object from the external device110 according to the touch input (the first and second touch inputs) ofthe user on the object displayed on the external device 110 that is seenthrough the transparent display unit 1610.

The storage 1620 stores at least one program that is configured toexecute the information display method in the transparent display 1610.The storage unit 1620 may include a non-volatile memory such as a highspeed random access memory, a magnetic disk storage device, or a flashmemory, or other non-volatile semiconductor memories.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating software layers stored in the storage1620 of the transparent display device 100 according to an exemplaryembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 18, the software layer may include a storage module1810, a sensor and recognition module 1820, a communication module 1830,an input/output module 1860, and a legend module 1870, but is notlimited thereto.

The storage module 1810 includes a system database 1811 that is astorage for storing general data such as address book and environmentalinformation, and a touch mode data region 1812 for storing settingvalues for touch modes of the object that will be displayed on thetransparent display 1610.

The sensor recognition module 1820 includes a module 1821 for sensing atouch on the transparent display 1610, and a module 1822 for classifyingthe input touch. The module 1822 for classifying the input touch mayclassify the touch input as a front input mode 1823 for transferring aninput on the front surface input interface to an event processor X11, arear input mode 1824 for transferring an input on a rear surface inputinterface to the event processor X11, and a dual mode 1825 fortransferring a dual-touch input (both-touch input of the front surfaceinput interface and the real surface input interface) to the eventprocessor X11. However, the sensor recognition module 1820 may beconfigured by an input mode for only transferring the input on the frontsurface of the transparent display 1610 to the event processor X11.

The communication module 1830 may include a telephony module 1840 and amessaging module 1850, but is not limited thereto.

The telephony module 1840 includes an information collection module 1842for connecting a phone call, and a voice service module 1841 fortransmitting voice over the Internet based on voice over Internetprotocol (VoIP).

The messaging module 1850 includes an instant module 1851 regardingconversation between users through an Internet connection, a module 1852regarding short message service (SMS) text messages and multimediamessages, and a module 1853 for emailing.

The input/output module 1860 includes a UI & graphic module 1861, and amultimedia module 1865.

The UI & graphic module 1861 includes an X11 module 1862 for receiving atouch input by a window manager, a module 1863 that outputs all objectsseen by a user on a screen, and an evaluation module 1864 regarding amode setting value stored for each object and a current touch input.

The multimedia module 1865 includes a moving picture reproducing module1866, a moving picture and still image capturing module 1867, and avoice reproducing module 1868.

The programs for executing the information display method according tothe exemplary embodiments may be stored in the storage module 1871. Thestorage module 1871 may store various applications.

As described above, the storage 1620 may store programs of variousconfigurations, and is not limited to the example shown in FIG. 18.

The communication interface 1630 may communicate with at least one ofthe external device 110, the server 120, and the AP 130. To performcommunication, the communication interface 1630 may be configured totransmit/receive data via a wireless communication network such aswireless Internet, wireless Intranet, a wireless phone network, awireless local area network (LAN), a Wi-Fi network, a Wi-Fi direct (WFD)network, a 3G network, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, aBluetooth network, an infrared data association (IrDA) network, a radiofrequency identification (RFID) network, a ultra wideband (UWB) network,a Zigbee network, or a near field communication (NFC) network; however,the present invention is not limited thereto. In particular, thecommunication interface 1630 may include a global positioning system(GPS) module.

The processor 1640 may perform operations according to the abovedescribed exemplary embodiments by executing the programs stored in thestorage 1620. The processor 1640 receives a first touch inputrepresenting reference information with respect to the external device110 that is seen through the transparent display 1610, and a secondtouch input representing a selection on an object displayed on theexternal device 110. The processor 1640 requests information related tothe object to the external device 110 based on the first and secondtouch inputs received via the communication interface 1630. Whenreceiving the information related to the object from the external device110 via the communication interface 1630, the processor 1640 displaysthe received information on the transparent display 1610.

Operations of the processor 1640 regarding the information displaymethod according to the exemplary embodiments may be performed asdescribed with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 2, 11, 12, 14, 15,and FIG. 21 that will be described later.

The sensor 1650 senses a current status of the transparent displaydevice 100 such as location of the transparent display device 100,contact of the user on the transparent display device 100, orientationof the transparent display device 100, and acceleration or decelerationof the transparent display device 100 and generates a sensing signal forcontrolling operations of the transparent display device 100. Inparticular, the sensor 1650 may generate a sensing signal regarding thelocation of the transparent display device 100 in order to receiveinformation based on the augmented reality service described withreference to FIGS. 10A through 10D.

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of the transparent display device100 according to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 19, the transparent display device 100 may include atransparent display 1901, a user input interface 1902, a sensor 1903, acamera 1904, a storage 1905, a communication interface 1906, a port1907, an audio input interface 1908, an audio signal processor 1909, anaudio output interface 1910, a power supply 1911, and a processor 1912,but is not limited thereto. That is, the transparent display device 100may include fewer components than those of FIG. 19, or may includeadditional components other than those of FIG. 19.

The transparent display 1901 may be referred to as a touch screen. Thetransparent display 1901 may display objects, and may receive atouch-based user input. The transparent display 1901 may receive thetouch-based user input via at least one of a front surface and a rearsurface of the transparent display 1901. To do this, the transparentdisplay 1901 includes at least one touch sensor. The touch sensor mayrecognize the user input based on (x, y) coordinates. The touch sensormay include a sensor for recognizing a direct-touch, or a sensor forrecognizing a proximity-touch.

The user input may be generated according to a request of a user basedon gestures of the user, or user's selection. The gesture of the usermay be variously defined by combinations of the number of touches, touchpatterns, touch area, and touch intensity.

As described above with reference to the transparent display 1610 ofFIG. 16, the transparent display 1901 is formed as a transparent device,and a transparency of the transparent display 1901 may be adjusted byadjusting light transmittance of the transparent device or by adjustingRGB value of each pixel. Also, the transparent display 1901 may have astructure in which an OLED and an LCD are combined. In the transparentdisplay 1901, the OLED may be located adjacent to a front surface of thetransparent display 1901, and the LCD may be located adjacent to a rearsurface of the transparent display 1901.

The transparent display 1901 may display a screen respectivelyresponding to a touch-based user input through at least one of the frontand rear surfaces thereof, a user input based on the sensor 1903, a userinput via the camera 1904, and a user input via the audio inputinterface 1908. The screen displayed on the transparent display 1901 mayinclude a UI or a GUI screen.

The transparent display 1901 may have a physical structure like thetransparent display 1610 described with reference to FIG. 16. Two ormore transparent display 1901 may be formed according to the type of thetransparent display device 100.

The user input interface 1902 generates input data (or control data) forcontrolling operations of the transparent display device 100 and a userinput. The user input interface 1902 may include a keypad, a domeswitch, a touch pad that is used instead of a mouse, a jog wheel, a jogswitch, and a hardware (H/W) button.

The sensor 1903, like the sensor 1650 shown in FIG. 16, senses a currentstatus of the transparent display device 100 such as location of thetransparent display device 100, contact of the user on the transparentdisplay device 100, orientation of the transparent display device 100,and acceleration or deceleration of the transparent display device 100and generates a sensing signal for controlling operations of thetransparent display device 100.

The sensor 1903 may include a sensor except for the sensors for sensingthe direct touch or the proximate touch described regarding thetransparent display 1901. For example, the sensor 1903 may include aproximity sensor. The proximity sensor is a sensor for detecting whetheran object approaches a previously set defection surface or whether theexternal object is present nearby by using a force of an electromagneticfield or an infrared ray without an actual physical touch. Examples ofthe proximity sensor include a transparent photoelectric sensor, adirect reflective photoelectric sensor, a mirror reflectivephotoelectric sensor, a high frequency oscillation photoelectric sensor,a capacitive photoelectric sensor, a magnetic photoelectric sensor, aninfrared photoelectric sensor, etc.

The camera 1904 processes an image frame such as a still image or amoving image obtained from an image sensor in a conference call mode ora photographing mode. The processed image frame may be displayed on thetransparent display 1901. The image frame processed by the camera 1904may be stored in the storage 1905 or may be transmitted to anotherdevice through the communication interface 1906 or the port 1907. Thedevice receiving the transmitted image frame may include at least one ofthe external device 110, the server 120, and the AP 130, but is notlimited thereto.

The camera 1904 may also be configured to receive the user input to thefront and rear surfaces of the transparent display 1901 or to photographthe object. The number of cameras 1904 may be two or more according to astructure of the transparent display device 100. The camera 1904 may beused as an input apparatus that recognizes a user's spatial gesture.

The storage 1905 stores at least one program configured to be executedby the processor 1912, which will be described later, and a resource.The at least one program includes a program that executes an informationdisplay method, an operating system (OS) program of the transparentdisplay device 100, applications set in the transparent display device100, and a program necessary for performing various functions (forexample, communication function and display function) of the transparentdisplay device 100.

The resource includes information necessary for executing theabove-described programs, user interface screen information forperforming the information display method mentioned in embodiments ofthe present invention, and the user input information recognized by thefirst and second touch inputs. The user input information recognized asthe first and second touch inputs may be set based on the examplesdescribed with reference to FIGS. 3 through 10, but is not limitedthereto.

The storage 1905 may be configured to independently include a storagethat stores at least one program necessary for performing variousfunctions of the transparent display device 100 and an operating systemprogram, and a storage that stores one or more programs, resources, andvarious applications that execute the information display method.

The storage 1905 may include at least one type of storage medium among aflash memory type, a hard disk type, a multimedia card micro type, and acard type memory (for example, an SD or XD memory), a read only memory(ROM), an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM), a programmable read only memory (PROM) magnetic memory, and anoptical disk.

The communication interface 1906 may be configured to transmit data toand receive data from at least one of the external device 110, a server(120), and AP(130) via a wireless communication network such as wirelessInternet, wireless Intranet, a wireless phone network, a wireless localarea network (LAN), a Wi-Fi network, a Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network, a 3Gnetwork, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a Bluetooth network, aninfrared data association (IrDA) network, a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) network, a ultra wideband (UWB) network, a Zigbeenetwork, or a near field communication (NFC) network, but is not limitedthereto.

The communication interface 1906 may include at least one of abroadcasting reception module, a mobile communication module, a wirelessInternet module, a wired Internet module, a short distance communicationmodule, and a location information module but is not limited thereto.

The broadcasting reception module receives a broadcasting signal and/orbroadcasting related information from an external broadcastingmanagement server through a broadcasting channel. The broadcastingchannel may include a satellite channel and a terrestrial channel. Themobile communication module transmits and receives a wireless signal toand from at least one of a base station, the external device 110, andthe server 120 over a mobile communication network. The wireless signalmay include various types of data according to a voice call signal, aconference phone call, or transmission/reception of a text/multimediamessage. The wireless Internet module is a module for a wirelessInternet connection. The wired Internet module is a module for a wiredInternet connection.

The short distance communication module is a module for short distancecommunication. Short distance communication technologies may useBluetooth, RFID, IrDA, UWB, Zigbee, WFD, NFC, etc. Like the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 14, the information about the object displayedon the external device 110 and the screen size information may bereceived via the short distance communication module. For example, whenusing the NFC communication method and a distance between the externaldevice 110 and the transparent display device 100 is within a radius ofthe short distance communication based on the NFC, the transparentdisplay device 100 may read or receive the above information from theexternal device 110.

The location information module is a module for identifying or obtainingthe location of the transparent display device 100. As an example, a GPSmodule may be used. The GPS module receives location information from aplurality of satellites. The location information may include coordinateinformation represented by latitude and longitude.

The port 1907 may transmit and receive data to and from the externaldevice 110 by using a plug and play interface such as a USB port. Theplug and play interface is a module that automatically detects andenables use of (i.e., play) if the external device 110 is plugged intothe transparent display device 100. The device is not limited to theexternal device 110.

The audio input interface 1908 receives an input of an external soundsignal in a call mode, a recording mode, or a voice recognition mode,etc. The audio input interface 1908 may be configured as, for example, amicrophone. The audio input interface 1908 may be configured to includevarious noise removal algorithms for removing noise that occurs duringthe process of receiving the input of the external sound signal.

The sound signal input by using the audio input interface 1908 may beuser's input representing a selection on the object displayed on theexternal device 110 that is seen through the transparent display unit1901 according to an exemplary embodiment. The sound signal input byusing the audio input interface 1908 may be stored in the storage 1905or may be transmitted to the outside through the communication interface1906 or the port 1907. The outside may include the external device 110,other external devices (not shown), the server 120, and the AP 130.

The audio signal processing unit 1909 provides an interface between theaudio input interface 1908 and the processor 1912 and between the audiooutput interface 1910 and the processor 1912. That is, the audio signalprocessing unit 1909 converts the sound signal received from the audioinput interface 1908 into audio data that may be processed by theprocessor 1912 and transmits the audio data to the processor 1912. Theaudio signal processing unit 1909 converts the audio data transmittedfrom the processor 1912 into an electrical sound signal and transmitsthe electrical sound signal to the audio output interface 1910.

The audio output interface 1910 outputs the sound signal or the audiosignal received from the audio signal processing unit 1909 in the callmode or an audio production mode. The audio signal output interface 1910may be configured as a speaker. The audio input interface 1908 and theaudio output interface 1910 may be integrally configured like a headset.

The transparent display 1901, the user input interface 1902, the sensor1903, the camera 1904, and the audio input interface 1908 may bereferred to as input apparatuses or input/output apparatuses accordingto a function of a user interface between the transparent display device100 and the user. For example, in a case where the function of the userinterface between the transparent display device 100 and the userincludes a touch screen function, a sound recognition function, and aspatial gesture recognition function, the user input interface 1902, thesensor 1903, the camera 1904, and the audio input interface 1908 may bereferred to as the input apparatuses, and the transparent display 1901may be referred to as the input/output apparatus.

The power supply 1911 supplies power to various elements of thetransparent display device 100. The power supply 1911 includes one ormore power sources such as a battery and an alternating current (AC)power source. The transparent display device 100 may not include thepower supply 1911 but may include a connection unit (not shown) that maybe connected to an external power supply (not shown).

The processor 1912 may be referred to as one or more processors thatcontrol a general operation of the transparent display device 100.Although the processor 1912 is implemented as a single chip in FIG. 19,the processor 1912 may be divided into a plurality of processorsaccording to a function of the transparent display device 100.

The processor 1912 may generally control the transparent display 1901,the user input interface 1902, the sensor 1903, the camera 1904, thestorage 1905, the communication interface 1906, the port 1907, the audioinput interface 1908, the audio signal processing unit 1909, and theaudio output interface 1910. Thus, the processor 1912 may be referred toas a controller, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, etc.

The processor 1912 may also provide user's input that is input throughthe transparent display 1901, the user input interface 1902, the sensor1903, the camera 1904, and the audio input interface 1908 thatcorrespond to input apparatuses and a user interface based on thetransparent display 1901.

The processor 1912 may execute at least one program related to theinformation display method according to the exemplary embodiments. Theprocessor 1912 may execute the program by reading the program from thestorage 1905 or downloading the program from an external apparatus suchas an application providing server (not shown) or a market server (notshown) through the communication interface 1906.

The processor 1912 may be understood to include an interface functionunit interfacing between various functional modules and the processor1912 of the transparent display device 100. The operation of theprocessor 1912 related to the information display method according tothe exemplary embodiments may be performed as shown in flowcharts ofFIGS. 2, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 21 that will be described later.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating operations of the external device110 according to an exemplary embodiment.

In operation S2001, the external device 110 receives a request forinformation related to at least on object displayed on the externaldevice 110 from the transparent display device 100. The request forinformation may be transmitted via at least one of the directcommunication between the devices, the communication via a server, andthe communication via a repeater.

The request for information related to the object may be input based onthe first touch input and the second touch input to the transparentdisplay device 100. The first touch input is a user input to thetransparent display device 100 for representing the referenceinformation about the external device 110 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100. The second touch input is a user inputto the transparent display device 100 for selecting at least one objectdisplayed on the external device 110 that is seen through thetransparent display device 100.

The request for information related to the object may include thedisplayed location information (coordinate information) of the selectedobject on the external device 110 as described in the above exemplaryembodiments, the screen size of the transparent display device 100, andthe coordinate information of the first and second touch inputs on thetransparent display device 100, but is not limited thereto.

However, when the transparent display device 100 operates as theflowchart shown in FIG. 21, the request for information related to theobject may be based on the touch input corresponding to the second touchinput.

In operation S2002, the external device 110 selects an object inresponse to the received request for the information related to theobject. For example, if the requested object is an icon, the externaldevice 110 selects the icon of the requested object and the applicationprogram connected to the icon. If the requested object is a folder, theexternal device 110 selects the requested folder and files or datalocated at a lower layer of the folder. If the requested object is anobject included in one screen, the external device 110 selects theobject by using the coordinate information included in the receivedrequest. If the requested object is a plurality of objects included inone screen, the external device 110 respectively selects the pluralityof objects by using the coordinate information of the object included inthe received request.

In operation S2003, the external device 110 transmits informationrelated to the selected object to the transparent display device 100.The information related to the object is transmitted to the transparentdisplay device 100 in the same manner as the request for the informationis received, but is not limited thereto. For example, the request forthe information may be received via the direct communication between thedevices, and the information related to the object selected in responseto the request may be transmitted to the transparent display device 100via the repeater or the server.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying informationon a transparent display device according to another exemplaryembodiment. FIG. 21 shows a case where the second touch input mentionedwith reference to FIG. 2 is used.

In operation S2101, the transparent display device 100 receives a touchinput for selecting an object displayed on the external device 110 thatis seen through the transparent display device 100. Here, the touchinput corresponds to the second touch input mentioned in FIGS. 2 through10. The information about the external device 110 that is seen throughthe transparent display device 100 may be the same as that mentioned inFIGS. 1 through 10.

In operation S2102, the transparent display device 100 requests theexternal device 110 for information related to the object selected basedon the touch input. A signal for requesting information related to theobject selected based on the touch input transmitted to the externaldevice 110 includes a signal for requesting information related to theobject selected based on the second touch input mentioned in FIGS. 2through 10.

In operation S2103, the transparent display device 100 receivesinformation about the selected object from the external device 110. Thereceived information corresponds to the request signal in operationS2102, and may be the same as the information received in operation S203shown in FIG. 2.

In operation S2104, the transparent display device 100 displays thereceived information. The received information may be displayed in thesame manner as that of operation S204 shown in FIG. 2.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 21 may be modified to include the operationS1105 shown in FIG. 11 so that the object displayed on the transparentdisplay device 100 may be edited based on the interaction between thetransparent display device 100 and the external device 110.

The information display method according to exemplary embodiments mayalso be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readablerecording medium. The computer readable medium may be any recordingapparatus capable of storing data that is read by a computer system,e.g., a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a compactdisc (CD)-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storagedevice, and so on. The computer readable medium may be distributed amongcomputer systems that are interconnected through a network, and thepresent invention may be stored and implemented as computer readablecode in the distributed system.

While the exemplary embodiments have been particularly shown anddescribed, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the artthat various changes in form and details may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention as definedby the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of displaying information on atransparent display device, the method comprising: receiving a touchinput on the transparent display device that selects an object displayedon an external device that is viewable through a screen of thetransparent display device; requesting the external device forinformation related to the object; receiving the information related tothe object from the external device; and displaying the receivedinformation on the screen of the transparent display device.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the touch input indicates a contour line ofthe object that is viewable through the screen.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the touch input is a tap-based touch indicating a location onthe screen at which the object is viewable through the screen.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the touch input indicates a closed region onthe screen at which the object is viewable through the screen.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the information related to the objectindicates at least one other object having a type that is the same as atype of the object, and a display location on a screen of the externaldevice of the at least one other object differs from that of the object.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the objectindicates information that is not displayed on a screen of the externaldevice.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying comprisesdisplaying the received information at a display location on the screenof the transparent display device that corresponds to a display locationof the object on a screen of the external device.
 8. The method of claim1, further comprising editing the information that is displayed on thescreen of the transparent display device based on an interaction betweenthe transparent display device and the external device.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising displaying information related to theexternal device based on an augmented reality service on the screen ofthe transparent display device.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein therequesting and the receiving the information are performed based on oneof a direct communication between devices, a communication via a server,and a communication via a repeater.
 11. A transparent display devicecomprising: a transparent display configured to receive a touch inputthat selects an object displayed on an external device that is viewablethrough the transparent display; a communication unit configured tocommunicate with an external device that is viewable through thetransparent display; and a processor configured to request the externaldevice for information related to the object based on the touch input,via the communication unit, receive information related to the objectfrom the external device in response to the request, via thecommunication unit, and control the transparent display to display thereceived information.
 12. The transparent display device of claim 11,wherein the touch input indicates on a contour line of the object thatis viewable through the transparent display.
 13. The transparent displaydevice of claim 11, wherein the touch input is a tap-based touchindicating a location of the transparent display at which the object isviewable through the transparent display.
 14. The transparent displaydevice of claim 11, wherein the touch input indicates a closed region ofthe transparent display at which the object is viewable through thetransparent display.
 15. The transparent display device of claim 11,wherein the information related to the object indicates at least oneother object having a type that is the same as a type of the object, anda display location on a screen of the external device of the at leastone other object differs from that of the object.
 16. The transparentdisplay device of claim 11, wherein the information related to theobject indicates information that is not displayed on a screen of theexternal device.
 17. The transparent display device of claim 11, whereinthe processor controls the transparent display to display the receivedinformation on a display location of the transparent display thatcorresponds to a display location of the object on a screen of theexternal device.
 18. The transparent display device of claim 11, whereinthe processor is further configured to edit the received informationthat is displayed on the transparent display based on an interactionbetween the transparent display device and the external device via thecommunication unit.
 19. The transparent display device of claim 11,wherein the processor is further configured to display informationrelated to the external device based on an augmented reality service ofthe transparent display device.
 20. The transparent display device ofclaim 11, wherein the communication unit is configured to communicatewith the external device based on one of a direct communication betweendevices, a communication via a server, and a communication via arepeater.
 21. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium havingembodied thereon a program which when executed implements a method ofdisplaying information to be performed by a transparent display device,wherein the method comprises: receiving a touch input on the transparentdisplay device that selects an object displayed on an external devicethat is viewable through a screen of the transparent display device;requesting the external device for information related to the object;receiving the information related to the object from the externaldevice; and displaying the received information on the screen of thetransparent display device.
 22. A method of displaying information on atransparent display device, the method comprising: receiving a firsttouch input on a screen of the transparent display device indicatingfirst position information of an external device that is viewablethrough the screen of the transparent display device; receiving a secondtouch input on the screen of the transparent display device indicatingsecond position information of an object displayed on a screen of theexternal device viewable through the screen of the transparent displaydevice; requesting the external device for information related to theobject based on the first position information and the second positioninformation; receiving information related to the object from theexternal device in response to the requesting; and displaying thereceived information on the screen of the transparent display device.23. The method of claim 22, wherein the first position informationindicates a contour line of the external device viewable through thescreen of the transparent display device.
 24. The method of claim 22,wherein the first touch input comprises independent touch operations ona first point and a second point on the screen of the transparentdisplay device that indicate a contour line of the external device thatis viewable through the screen of the transparent display device. 25.The method of claim 22, wherein the first touch input is atouch-and-drag operation for connecting a first point and a second pointon the screen of the transparent display device that indicates a contourline of the external device that is viewable through the screen of thetransparent display device.
 26. The method of claim 22, wherein thefirst touch input indicates a touch-based region adjusting operation forguide information displayed on the screen of the transparent displaydevice, and a range related to the touch-based region adjustingoperation for the guide information is based on a contour line of theexternal device that is viewable through the screen of the transparentdisplay device.
 27. The method of claim 22, wherein the first touchinput is a touch operation for selecting screen information of theexternal device, wherein the screen information is included in aselectable screen information menu item about the external device, whichis displayed on the screen of the transparent display device, whereinthe screen information comprises at least one of screen size informationand screen type information.
 28. The method of claim 22, wherein thesecond position information indicates a contour line of the object thatis viewable through the screen on the transparent display device. 29.The method of claim 22, wherein the second touch input is a tap-basedtouch indicating a location on the screen of the transparent displaydevice at which the object is viewable through the screen of thetransparent display device.
 30. The method of claim 22, wherein thesecond touch input indicates a closed region on the screen of thetransparent display device through which the object is viewable on thescreen of the transparent display device.
 31. The method of claim 22,wherein the information related to the object indicates at least oneother object having a type that is the same as a type of the object, anda display location on the screen of the external device of the at leastone other object differs from that of the object.
 32. The method ofclaim 22, further comprising editing the information that is displayedon the screen of the transparent display device based on an interactionbetween the transparent display device and the external device.
 33. Atransparent display device comprising: a transparent display configuredto receive a touch input indicating first position information of anexternal device that is viewable through the transparent display, and toreceive a second touch input indicating second position information ofan object displayed on a screen of the external device viewable throughthe transparent display; a communication unit configured to communicatewith the external device; and a processor configured to request theexternal device for information related to the object based on the firstposition information and the second position information, via thecommunication unit, receive information related to the object from theexternal device in response to the request, via the communication unit,and display the received information on the transparent display.
 34. Thetransparent display device of claim 33, wherein the first positioninformation indicates a contour line of the external device viewablethrough the transparent display.
 35. The transparent display device ofclaim 33, wherein the first touch input comprises independent touchoperations on a first point and a second point on the transparentdisplay that indicate a contour line of the external device that isviewable through the transparent display.
 36. The transparent displaydevice of claim 33, wherein the first touch input is a touch-and-dragoperation for connecting a first point and a second point on thetransparent display that indicate a contour line of the external devicethat is viewable through the transparent display.
 37. The transparentdisplay device of claim 33, wherein the first touch input indicates atouch-based region adjusting operation for guide information displayedon the transparent display, and a range of the touch-based regionadjusting operation for the guide information is based on a contour lineof the external device that is viewable through the transparent display.38. The transparent display device of claim 33, wherein the first touchinput is a touch operation for selecting screen information of theexternal device, wherein the screen information is included in aselectable screen information menu item about the external device, whichis displayed on the transparent display, wherein the screen informationcomprises at least one of screen size information and screen typeinformation, wherein the screen information menu item is stored in thestorage unit, wherein the screen information menu item is read by theprocessor from the storage unit and displayed on the transparentdisplay.
 39. The transparent display device of claim 33, wherein thesecond position information indicates a contour line of the object thatis viewable through the transparent display.
 40. The transparent displaydevice of claim 33, wherein the second touch input is based on atap-based touch indicating a location of the transparent display atwhich the object is viewable through the transparent display.
 41. Thetransparent display device of claim 33, wherein the second touch inputindicates a closed region on the transparent display through which theobject is viewable through the transparent display.
 42. The transparentdisplay device of claim 33, wherein the information related to theobject indicates at least one other object having a type that is thesame as a type of the object, wherein a display location on the screenof the external device of the at least one other object differs fromthat of the object.
 43. The transparent display device of claim 33,wherein the processor is further configured to edit the receivedinformation that is displayed on the transparent display based on aninteraction between the transparent display device and the externaldevice via the communication unit.
 44. A non-transitorycomputer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a programwhich when executed implements a method of displaying information to beperformed by a transparent display device, the method comprises:receiving a first touch input on a screen of the transparent displaydevice indicating first position information of an external device thatis viewable through the screen of the transparent display device;receiving a second touch input on the screen of the transparent displaydevice indicating second position information of an object displayed ona screen of the external device viewable through the screen of thetransparent display device; requesting the external device forinformation related to the object based on the first positioninformation and the second position information; and receivinginformation related to the object from the external device in responseto the requesting; and displaying the received information on the screenof the transparent display device.
 45. A method of displayinginformation on a screen of a transparent display device, the methodcomprising: receiving from the transparent display device a request forinformation related to at least one object displayed on a screen of anexternal device that is viewable through a screen of the transparentdisplay device; selecting the at least one object in response to therequest; and transmitting the information related to the selected objectto the transparent display device, wherein the request for informationrelated to the object comprises first position information of theexternal device indicated by a first touch input on the transparentdisplay device and second position information of the object displayedon the screen of the external device indicated by a second touch inputon the transparent display device.
 46. A method of displayinginformation on a transparent display device, the method comprising:receiving a first input that identifies a boundary of a screen of anexternal device viewable through the transparent display device;receiving a second input that selects a position of the screen of theexternal device viewable through the transparent display device;transmitting a request for information associated with the position ofthe screen of the external device, the request comprising the boundaryand the position; and receiving from the external device the informationassociated with the position of the screen of the external device. 47.The method of claim 46, wherein an object is displayed on the screen ofthe external device at the position.
 48. The method of claim 47, whereinthe object comprises one of an icon and a character.
 49. The method ofclaim 48, wherein the information associated with the position comprisesinformation associated with the one of the icon and the character. 50.The method of claim 46, wherein the position comprises one of acoordinate position of the screen viewable through the transparentdisplay device and an area of the screen viewable through thetransparent display device.
 51. The method of claim of claim 46, furthercomprising: displaying the information on the transparent displaydevice.
 52. The method of claim 46, wherein the first input comprises atouch input and the second input comprises a touch input.
 53. Atransparent display device comprising: a transparent display configuredto receive a first input that identifies a boundary of a screen of anexternal device viewable through the transparent display device and asecond input that selects a position of the screen of the externaldevice viewable through the transparent display device; a communicationunit configured to communicate with the external device; and acontroller configured to transmit to the external device a request forinformation associated with the position of the screen of the externaldevice, the request comprising the boundary and the position, andreceive from the external device the information associated with theposition of the screen of the external device.
 54. The method of claim53, wherein an object is displayed on the screen of the external deviceat the position.
 55. The method of claim 54, wherein the objectcomprises one of an icon and a character.
 56. The method of claim 55,wherein the information associated with the position comprisesinformation associated with the one of the icon and the character. 57.The method of claim 53, wherein the position comprises one of acoordinate position of the screen viewable through the transparentdisplay device and an area of the screen viewable through thetransparent display device.
 58. The method of claim of claim 53, whereinthe controller is further configured to control the transparent displayto display the information on the transparent display.
 59. The method ofclaim 53, wherein the first input comprises a touch input and the secondinput comprises a touch input.
 60. A non-transitory computer-readablerecording medium having embodied thereon a program which when executedimplements a method of displaying information on a transparent displaydevice, the method comprising: receiving a first input that identifies aboundary of a screen of an external device viewable through thetransparent display device; receiving a second input that selects aposition of the screen of the external device viewable through thetransparent display device; transmitting a request for informationassociated with the position of the screen of the external device, therequest comprising the boundary and the position; and receiving from theexternal device the information associated with the position of thescreen of the external device.
 61. A method of displaying information ona transparent display device, the method comprising: receiving from thetransparent display device first information that indicates a boundaryof a screen of the external device viewable through the transparentdisplay device and second information that indicates a position of thescreen of the external device viewable through the transparent displaydevice; determining an object displayed on the screen of the externaldevice based on the first information and the second information;determining information associated with the object; and transmitting theinformation to the transparent display device.
 62. The method of claim61, wherein the object comprises one of an icon and a character.
 63. Themethod of claim 61, wherein the position comprises one of a coordinateposition of the screen viewable through the transparent display deviceand an area of the screen viewable through the transparent displaydevice.
 64. A display device comprising: a display configured to displayat least one object; a communication unit configured to receive from atransparent display device first information that indicates a boundaryof a display of the display device viewable through the transparentdisplay device and second information that indicates a position of thedisplay of the display device viewable through the transparent displaydevice; a controller configured to determine an object displayed on thedisplay based on the first information and the second information,determine information associated with the object, and control thecommunication unit to transmit the information to the transparentdisplay device.
 65. The display device of claim 64, wherein the objectcomprises one of an icon and a character.
 66. The display device ofclaim 64, wherein the position comprises one of a coordinate position ofthe display viewable through the transparent display device and an areaof the display viewable through the transparent display device.
 67. Anon-transitory computer-readable recording medium having embodiedthereon a program which when executed implements method of displayinginformation on a transparent display device, the method comprising:receiving from the transparent display device first information thatindicates a boundary of a screen of the external device viewable throughthe transparent display device and second information that indicates aposition of the screen of the external device viewable through thetransparent display device; determining an object displayed on thescreen of the external device based on the first information and thesecond information; determining information associated with the object;and transmitting the information to the transparent display device.